Tez Financial Services raises $1.1m

KARACHI (PR) - Tez Financial Services, the first fully digital Non-Bank Microfinance Company (NBMFC) focused on serving the unbanked and underbanked in Pakistan, has announced that it has raised USD$1.1 million in a seed round led by Omidyar Network, the impact investment firm established by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Other investors on this round include Accion Venture Lab, the seed-stage investment initiative of global nonprofit Accion; and Planet N. Funds will be deployed to build the company’s credit portfolio, enhance its mobile technology platform, and to meet the regulatory NBMFC requirements. “Our aim is to become the primary financial service provider for the unbanked and underbanked. Tez delivers a seamless experience for its customers, providing loans in under 15 minutes as opposed to the usual month timeline from local commercial banks. Soon, we will be able to process a life and health insurance claim in similar time,” explains Nadeem Hussain, co-founder and CEO of Tez.

“New technologies, higher smartphone penetration, and falling data costs are fueling a great momentum for financial inclusion in frontier markets such as Pakistan. Tez is leveraging this to push the boundaries of banking in the country with an all-digital offering,” said Kabir Kumar, head of Policy and Ecosystem Building at Omidyar Network. “Tez’s diverse team is also well-positioned to bring about the products and services that really speak to the next generation of consumers in that country.”